Jefferson County, Alabama Files for Largest Municipal Bankrupcty in U.S. History, Beating O.C.'s 1994 Bankruptcy

​Man, Alabama wants so bad to be like Orange County, it's freakin' uncanny. First, the state passed an anti-immigrant law that was the bastard child of our own Proposition 187. Now, the state's Jefferson County (of which Birmingham offers Alabama's only hints that we now live in the 21th century) has now declared bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

The bankruptcy it displaced? Why, our 1994 valentine to county taxpayers, of course! We're #2! We're #2!For the background on how this happened, read the coverage offered by Weld for Birmingham, the city's alt-weekly that carries my ¡Ask a Mexican! column. In the meanwhile, let's hope that Jefferson County gets covered in Mexicans like we have, too!

This is only the beginning. There are going to be a lot of local government bankruptcies in the US. In fact, if you didn't count the infrastructure that they can't sell to anyone anyway, and added in the unfunded retirement benefits most cities and counties are already bankrupt.